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Nice Bryan!  You are definitely giving me hope in finding treasures in our northwest ground.  Even crusty as it is after 100 years in the ground... GREAT FIND.  I notice you didn't SOS that one ;).  Congrats Bryan!!

Tim.

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Great find, Bryan!  Probably the most valuable Buffie in circulated condition except for some of the error coins.  Yes, for sure the chemicals in the soil didn't do this one any favors.  :sad: The details on both sides indicate this was in high grade when dropped so your 100 year estimate of time in the ground (deteriorating) seems pretty reasonable.

When you look at surival numbers of old coins you see that in general the fraction is low.  Where did they all go?  Some were melted, but many were lost.  That's one of the great things about metal detecting for old coins -- specimens that are uncommon in collections today can turn up.  You've proved that again.  All the years I searched bank rolls and pocket change, even the semi-keys were needles in a haystack because the collectors prior to me had selectively taken them out of circulation.

There is a geographical effect for lost/dropped coins (which you in the Pacific NW take advantage of) but otherwise no selection effect (outside of coin size).  A metal detectorist is sampling the coin's population throughout its circulation lifetime, and those that were lost early in its lifetime give us a chance at finding a key date in great shape (if the ground chemicals allow, that is).

 

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2 hours ago, Cabin Fever said:

Yesterday I pulled a 1906 V and better yet a 1913 S Type 2 Buffalo.. This is my most rare Nickel to date..

So... One little (gold half eagle), two little (1913 S T2 Buff), three little (Indian head cent??) Indians.  Knowing you... you probably already completed the Equinox Indian trifecta.  :biggrin:

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Ya the Equinox likes Indians..  I pulled this nice one on yesterday’s hunt along with the Nickels..

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:biggrin:

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I have to say that I like digging nickels, especially Buffalo Nickels. They're one of the older denominations that is a little time travel piece that takes me back. 

In my area of Utah, we seem to get a good mix of both Denver and San Francisco mint marks on our coins; perhaps since we sit half-way between the San Francisco and Denver mints. Some areas I hunt seem to treat the nickels better than others, but I've found a number of 'keeper' Buffalo's since I started swinging a detector. 

Here's a couple pics of a nice example, a 1913-D type 2 in pretty good shape.

Some other better dates that have turned up under the coil;

1913-S type 2 (2)

1914-S  (2)

1915-D

1916 (multiples)

1916-D

1917-D

1918-D (2)

1918

1920-S

1925-D

1926-S (2)

1935

While they may come up with some 'toning' on them, they are certainly attractive coins to fill your collection with and some may have collector value as well.

I received my Minelab 800 in the mail last week and took it to a few spots I am very familiar with to get an idea of capability. It was certainly fitting that the first old coin found was a 1936-S Buffalo Nickel. 6" deep, in the tabs and low conductivity junk. (12-13) In that short hours hunt, I turned up 6 nickels. The 800 can find nickels, for me anyways, I keep an eye out for them.

Rich (Utah)

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Very nice Rich..  That one aged vary well considering it was under ground.. Great detail!

Bryan

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I never pass up a nickel because over the past 20 years I've found many women's gold ring digging nickels and below.

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3 hours ago, Mark Gillespie said:

I never pass up a nickel because over the past 20 years I've found many women's gold ring digging nickels and below.

i'm enjoying your videos on the Nox...they are a big help thx!

strick

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I agree with you. I often start out on a site cherry picking silver. I crank up discrimination and Max out sensitivity etc. Then I'll go back when I'm in the mood to try to sort out nickels and gold on my V3i. Cherry picking silver is a very quick and low trash process that ensures I'll walk away with something. But in the end, if I only hunt silver I could just use any lower cost powerful machine. All those bells and whistles would be wasted. Machines aren't good at sorting trash, but I've seen the people behind the machines get good at it using those bells and whistles like polar plot, spectragraph, Fe:Co numbers, variable notching and variable tone break etc.

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